The new funding is intended to assist consumers and businesses and support state and local governments in delivering critical services related to COVID-19.

Specific actions to be taken include:

• Supply cash to financial institutions participating in the SBA PPP loan program
• Buy up to $600B in loans through the Main Street Lending Program, to ensure credit remains available to SMBs
• Increase flow of credit to households and businesses by expanding the PMCCF, SMCCF and TALF programs up to $850B
• Establish a Municipal Liquidity Facility that will offer up to $500B in loans to states and municipalities

Under the Main Street Lending Program, SMBs with up to 10,000 employees and revenues up to $2.5B that were in good financial standing pre-pandemic will be offered 4-year loans with principal and interest payments deferred for 1 year.

Shortly after the new initiatives were announced, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a webcast that the US economy is in an emergency and deteriorating "with alarming speed" and:

“People have been asked to put their lives and livelihoods on hold, at significant economic and personal cost. We are moving with alarming speed from 50-year lows in unemployment to what will likely be very high, although temporary, levels.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been quoted as saying businesses may be able to reopen in May, but Mr. Powell said "sometime after July" is more likely.

Sometime after July?? That's not good news. Stay tuned for updates.